"debbie" (not in OED) [was: Shakespearean play-goer & cliches]

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks for locating that entry for "debbie", Joel. JL found a great
citation from a major literary figure in 1920:

Year: 1920
Title: This Side of Paradise
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
(Text from a reprint in Google Books)

[Begin excerpt]
With prohibition the great rendezvous had received their death wounds;
no longer could one wander to the Biltmore bar at twelve or five and
find congenial spirits, and both Tom and Amory had outgrown the
passion for dancing with mid-Western or New Jersey debbies at the
Club-de-Vingt (surnamed the "Club de Gink") or the Plaza Rose Room. .
.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 7:38 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "debbie" (not in OED) [was: Shakespearean play-goer &
>               cliches]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "debbie" = debuntante (unsophisticated, new to the society of the
> theater).  No headword, but a quotation in the OED, just three years
> later than Garson's quotation (and perhaps still new, as indicated by
> its being quoted):
>
> 1939 Chatelaine May 35/3   When I see a 'debbie' who never dances
> more than halfway round the ballroom without a cut-in, I make this
> mental note:..she'll soon be among the 'young marrieds'.
>
> Joel
>
> At 9/24/2014 07:24 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>On Sep 24, 2014, at 4:39 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>
>> > Wow, thank you for this quick find (finding?).
>> >
>> > I don't know what a debbie is (not defined by Wiktionary or the OED),
>>
>>Maybe a girl/young woman of the genre typically named Debbie?  I've
>>seen "a Jennifer" used as a general name of that kind, and of course
>>there's "a Sheila" in Oz.
>>
>>LH
>>...
>> > On Sep 24, 2014, at 1:07 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole
>> <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>...
>> >> >> [ref] 1936 October 17, Ballston Spa Daily Journal, My New York by
>> >> James Aswell, Quote Page 4, Column 2, Ballston Spa, New York. (Old
>> >> Fulton)[/ref]
>> >>
>> >> [Begin excerpt]
>> >> Leslie Howard has hung out his Shakespearean shingle in one theater
>> >> and the English marvel, John Gielgud, is holding forth in another. . .
>> >> . A pert debbie, attending the Gielgud interpretation the other night,
>> >> quipped in the lobby: "But how can anyone listen to all those old saws
>> >> and ancient wisecracks they've been hearing all their lives?" . . .
>> >> Well, a lot of people go to Shakespeare to recognize the quotations.
>> >> [End excerpt]
>
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